Double Peanut Butter Joy Cookies

Taking a break from chocolate chip cookies. I made another batch of the Levain cookies when my parents were here last weekend. This recipe is from one of those Favorite Brand Name Recipes cookbook that you find at the checkout aisle at the grocery store. "Butter Flavor Crisco American Cookie Celebration" is devoted to cookies made with Butter Flavor Crisco, Hershey's chips, Quaker Oats, and Jif Peanut Butter. I bought this cookbook for a whooping $0.25 at the Goodwill back in 1998. The cookies are fairly standard peanut butter cookies but with peanut butter chips and shortening rather than butter. They have a nice chewy texture because of the shortening and certainly doesn't spread. You can flatten these cookies but I chose not too. My taste tend towards the chewy rather than crispy cookies. Next time I am going to reduce the amount of peanut butter chips. The recipe calls for 2 cups of peanut butter chips. Too much, by the end I had more chips than batter left. I am going to try 1 1/2 cups of chips next time. As always, used my Chicago Metallic cookie sheet which meant I had to reduce the temperature to 325 F. I baked them for 10 minutes.

Double Peanut Butter Joy

1 C granulated sugar

1 C packed brown sugar (used light brown)

1 C Jif Creamy peanut butter

1/2 C Butter Flavor Crisco

2 eggs

1 1/2 C all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 C Reese's Peanut Butter Chips

Preheat oven to 350F. At medium speed, beat the sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter and Crisco in a large bowl until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Shift the flour, soda, and salt. Add gradually to the creamed mixture. Mix until just blended. Stir in the peanut butter chips. Shape into 1 1/2 inch balls. Place two inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten and make crisscrosses with a fork if desired. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges are set and tops are moist. Cool on baking sheet for 8 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Mrs. Field's Blue-Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Not sure if it was the weather, very storming out again, but I was in the mood to bake. Could be too that I was reading about Mrs. Field's recipes online today. I have a number of Mrs. Field's cookie recipes that I photocopied from her cookbook, Mrs. Field's Cookie Book way back when in high school. King Arthur's Essential Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie was next on my list to try but afterall it is 9:00 pm on a Wednesday night. So, I opted to try Mrs. Field's recipe as it is super easy. For 2 1/2 cups of flour she only uses 1/2 tsp of baking soda. Another major difference is that the cookies are baked at 300F for 22-24 minutes. We are not talking jumbo cookies either. I used my trustworthy Chicago Metallic baking pan, however didn't lower the temperature to 275F. That just seems too low. Rather, I reduced the baking time to 17 minutes. The recipe also has a high ratio of brown sugar to white granulated sugar. Kind of reminds me of a blondie. I didn't have salted butter so I just increased the salt to 1 tsp. They don't spread that much. I used my cookie scooper so they were small. Kind of like a minature verison of the Levain cookies. Certainly not flat like the Dorie Greenspan recipe (disappointed with these the next day, definitely not as good the next day). Actually, they taste very similar to the Levain cookies. Slight crispy edge with a nice chewy middle. For now, the recipe ranking is as follows: Levain, Mrs. Field's, Dorie Greenspan.

Mrs. Field's Blue-Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 C dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 C white sugar
1 C salted butter, softened
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300F. In medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In large bowl, with an electric mixer, blend the sugars at medium speed. Add the butter adn mix to form a grainy paste. Add the eggs and vanilla extract, mix at medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually add the flour mixture on low speed until just mixed. Do not overmix. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Baking for 22-24 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to wire rack and cool completely.